"Deserves death! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be so quick to deal out death in judgement. Even the wise cannot see all ends." -Tolkien

One of those quotes that I have liked for years, but now that the movie is out, it can be on the lips of every teenager in America. Never the less, good ethical philosophy. Death is the one punishment which we have no cure for. I guess that it is true, that many who are alive deserve death. That they have done things so atrosious that they no longer merit their life. But even still, is that for me to decide. How does one weigh one transgression against another. If Bob steals and Dick lies, then who has done the worse action. If I kill a man in a war, Nick kills a man in self-defense, and Jon kills one in cold blood, then whose murder is more or less right. Or is every evil on the same level? Is a rape equal to petty theft?

Back to the death thing. Does one person's sins give leave for another to kill him in the name of justice? And what if you're wrong. Say the next week the true criminal comes forth and admits his own guilt. Can you give the dead back his life? No. Or what if he really was the guilty party. Say a father kills the man who murdered his wife. The courts try and convict and put this father to death. But then say that this was the man who would have found a cure for cancer five years down the road. There is no way to see all ends to any sin. It is too harsh to deal out a permanent end when you may end up being wrong.